Read Jared Diamond. The only way grains benefited society is that they enabled empires to keep standing armies in times of peace, away from the capital at regional fortresses. These societies trampled the ones whose soldiers were also farmers, teachers, doctors, etc. In short, grains are a cheap source of calories, easily stored, good to survive on, but not to thrive on.
It's not terribly complicated. Get your vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and fiber from leafy greens, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Get carbs, when you need them, from fruits, starchy root vegetables, honey, tree saps. Get protein and fat from meat, eggs, nuts and seeds. It's sustainable, and not all that expensive if you plan it well. It's certainly cheaper than medical bills. I've been at it for 3 years already. And if it doesn't work for you, so what? Go find something that does.

Good points--all the way down the line. I'd like to add that I don't say anything to people who are chowing down on the foods I view as unhealthy--processed carbs (grains) and legumes. Yet, they insist on trying to change MY eating habits. I get tired of explaining the reasons I eat the way I do--and my health problems are really none of their business.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rubystars

...About grains and legumes though. If they were so horrible for us, then why is it that one of the main foods that kids ate when I was young were Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, and it never harmed any of us?

I mean it had wheat and peanuts in them! I never heard back then of anyone having a bad reaction to the bread or to the peanuts (or any other type of nut, legume or not). If you listened to the modern gluten-free advocates and the "nut free zone" advocates then you'd assume all of us kids should've been falling on the floor having seizures.

I don't personally believe there's anything harmful in grains or nuts or legumes for most healthy individuals. I also have a tendency to believe that most gluten sensitivities and nut allergies are psychosomatic or completely fake because I never heard of any of this back in the 80s when I was growing up and every kid brought a PB&J to lunch (without having an anaphylactic shock attack, imagine that). Now I know that for a small portion of the population, that there are real wheat allergies, peanut allergies, celiac disease, etc. so if you have these conditions then I'm not talking about you, but I don't think it's nearly as common as people think it is.

Actually, my generation didn't fall over from eating PBJ because the foods we ate started out as food. My mom made home-made bread from wheat berries ground into flour on the day she made the bread. Our PB was not GMO, and our jelly/jam was home-made from fruit off the trees in our back yard or from fruit she bought at the farmers market. We had PBJ a couple of times a week...or maybe once a day during the school year. We didn't have PBJ, a Twinkie, an orange, and a bag of chips every single day. If we had PBJ, it counted as a dessert, too.

Additionally, it didn't knock us out because our bodies functioned well. The fact of the matter is that my body does not function well any more...I cannot tolerate wheat, seeds (nuts, beans, rice, corn) or raw veggies. Not only do many of those things make me FAT, they now make me gravely ill.